Jay Gatsby and the Prohibition Gangster as Businessman
Author(s): Stephen Brauer
Source: The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, Vol. 2 (2003), pp. 51-71
Published by: Penn State University Press
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Jay
and
Gatsby
Gangster
as
the
Prohibition
Businessman
Stephen Brauer
ear the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald'sThe Great Gatsby,
was bound to get ahead. If he'd
s
father
says of his son, "Jimmy
Gatsby
of lived, he'd of been a great man. A man like James J. Hill. He'd of
helped build up the country"( 175-76). At thispointin thenovel,Gatsby
is dead, a victimof the wrathof the crazed George Wilson, who shoots
Gatsbyin the mistakenbelief thathe was the driverof the car thatran
down Wilson's wife and killed her. Having come East to help buryhis
son, Gatsby'sfatherthinksof that son- whose givenname was James
Gatz- on equal termswithone ofthehandfulofmenwho helpedreshape
the Americaneconomy in the previous40 years. Notwithstandingthe
paternalprideevidentin his claim ofhis son's destinyforgreatness,this
referenceto Hill- an Americanrailroadtycoonofthe
briefbut significant
- is an especiallyrevealing
late nineteenthand earlytwentiethcentury
but forthe most partcriticallyignoredmoment,forit positionsGatsby
as a self-mademan and suggestshis equivalencyto major industrialist
robberbarons such as Hill, JohnD. Rockefeller,and AndrewCarnegie.
Such a comparisonis ratherrarefiedair forsomeone who is most likely
a frontman fora bootlegging,gambling,and loansharkingsyndicate,yet
it demarcatesa keyideologyof the novel and of the 1920s culturethat
linkedbusiness and crime. In the years followingWorldWar I, a shift
in the representationof criminalsoccurred;writersno longerportrayed
themmerelyas figuresoperatingon the marginsof the culture,but also
as individualslookingto move into the mainstreamand into the seats
of power.
Review 2003
The F. ScottFitzgerald
51
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52
StephenBrauer
JamesJ. Hill was a well-knownfigureto earlytwentieth-century
Americans,especiallythosewithrootsin the Northwestor the Midwest,
such as Fitzgerald.Hill was instrumentalin openingup the railroadpassage between the Great Lakes and the Pacific,and he servedas a useful
model ofthe self-mademan,havingbeen bornin modestcircumstances
but prosperingand risingto greatsocial and economic heightsthrough
hardworkand intelligence.At 14, followinghis fathers death,Hill began
workingto supporthis familyAt 17, he lefthome and settledin St. Paul,
quicklyfindinga place therein the shippingbusiness. He recognized
the evolvingimportanceof transporting
goods across and throughthe
Midwest as the populationin thatregionskyrocketed,
and he was fortunate enough to be in a positionto take advantageof the vast economic
thatrailtransportation
offered.He embarkedon a series of
opportunity
fortuitousand ultimatelyprosperouspartnershipswitha groupof other
businessmento investin railroadsin the NorthernPlains, and, byvirtue
of his shrewdbusiness alliances, he vastlyincreased his rangeof influence and power.Thereafter,
Hill grewintotheforemostrailtycoonofthe
Northwestand one of the leading industrialistsin the country,owning
and operatingthe Great NorthernRailway,which ultimatelyextended
fromMinnesota to the PacificOcean.
When HenryGatz relates his vision of his son to Nick Carraway
in Fitzgerald'snovel, he clearlymeans it as a lament forwhat his son
could have been, a dream of the dazzling accomplishmentshe could
have pulled off,if he had onlyhad enough time. However,Mr. Gatz's
intentionsaside- otherthanits functionas a fathersmournfulcryfora
lost son- what else does thisreferenceto JamesJ. Hill near the end of
Fitzgerald'snovel signify?Fitzgerald'suse of Hill does not merelyserve
as a suggestionof the greatnessthat Gatsby mighthave achieved; it is
part of a largerrhetoricof self-makingthat is verymuch at the heart
of the novel, a Machiavellian rhetoricthat suggeststhat the means to
success do not matterso much as the results.Though Hill had died in
1916, his impact and influencecertainlystill resonated in the middle
of the 1920s. The reputationsof the robberbarons,however,were decidedlymixed.Historianshad chronicledtheirruthlessnessin business
mattersfromthebeginningoftheirreignovertheAmericanscene. Their
strictadherence to the tenetsof capitalism,especiallytheirstockpiling
and displayof wealth while otherAmericanswere sufferingeconomic
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
53
hardships,illustratedthat personal success could have broader social
costs.
Being a great man, "a man like JamesJ. Hill," was not merelya
compliment;it suggestedcomplicationsand even contradictions.Bythe
early 1920s, the meaningof success in America was in transitionfrom
the traditionalnotion that linked workwith virtueto a more "secular
understandingoftheAmericanDream" thatwas "entirelyeconomic and
freeof moralobligation"(Berman 178, 172-73). 1As JohnCawelti puts
it in ApostlesoftheSelf-Made Man , "The main trendin the development
ofideas ofself-helpwas awayfromtheearlierbalance ofpolitical,moral,
religious,and economic values and in the directionof an overriding
emphasis on the pursuitand use of wealth"(169). This concept of success definedin economic and not moraltermsprovidesa useful means
to consider the representationof the criminalin Fitzgeralds novel, for
the associationof Gatsbyand Hill revealsbroad culturalimplicationsin
the connectionsbetween gangstersand businessmen and between the
criminaland the self-mademan duringthe 1920s.
Although Gatsby serves as little more than the handsome and
elegant façade forMeyerWolfshiems criminalenterprises even ifhe
is a well-dressedand good-lookinggangster,Gatsby,afterall, is still a
gangster he does offera captivatingexample of self-makingand the
pursuitof the AmericanDream. The youngJamesGatz was a dreamer
withbiggerplans than a lifeof workingon an unsuccessfulfarmin the
NorthernPlains. Even as a youngboy he had kepta dailyschedule and
list of General Resolves in his ragged copy of Hopalong Cassidy.This
list forimprovinghimselfand his station- with such items as "Bath
everyotherday"and "Read one improvingbook or magazine per week"
reminiscentof the tenets set out
(181-82) - is, of course, strikingly
in
his
Ben
Franklin
; one of the foundationaltextsof
Autobiography
by
Americanself-makingideology.Franklinarticulatesan ideologywithits
rootsin Puritannotionsof hard workand virtue,as well as in the early
capitalismofAdam Smith and the belief in the necessityof takingadCawelti argues that"Franklinbelieved thatthe
vantageof opportunity.
habit of industryand prudence . . . would create virtuousand happy
people. How betterto stimulatemen to the practice of this habit than
by showingthatwealth and comfortcould be achieved by thismeans?"
(15). HoratioAlgerand manyotherstookup Franklinianideologyin the
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54
StephenBrauer
nineteenthcenturyand extendedhis emphasis on the need to recognize
and in the process the
and take advantage of avenues of opportunity,
the
on
virtue
to
lose
earlytwentiethcentury,
emphasis
began
primacy.By
Cawelti claims, "The old ideal of the moralpursuitof wealth had been
replaced by new visionsof sudden and massive enrichmenť,(110).
In The GreatGatsby,Fitzgeraldsituateshis main characterin this
evolutionofthe self-making
tradition.As a teen,JamesGatzs "heartwas
in a constant,turbulentriot.The mostgrotesqueand fantasticconceits
hauntedhim in his bed at night.A universeof ineffablegaudiness spun
itselfout in his brain" (105). Obsessed with makinga betterlife for
himselfand puffedup bythese romanticdreamsofgreatnessand future
he stumbleson the figureof Dan Cody.A self-mademan who had
glory,
recognizedan opportunity,
Cody made his fortunein Montana copper.
He was "a product of the Nevada silverfields,of the Yukon,of every
rush formetal since Seventy-five"
(105). When James Gatz sees Cody
in
anchor
the
shallows
drop
along the shore of Lake Superior,he rows
out to theyachtto warnhim thata strongwind mightendangerthe boat
there.To the youngman, Fitzgeraldwrites,"thatyachtrepresentedall
the beautyand glamorin the world"(106). He tells Cody thathis name
is JayGatsby and wins Cody over with his "quick, and extravagantly
ambitious"(106) personality.The older man soon becomes the mentor
fortheyoungerone, who embarkson the restofhis lifewitha new name
and a new identity(106). PhilipCastille has pointedout thatCody,who
by virtueof his name seems to be somethingof an amalgam of Daniel
Boone and BuffaloBill Cody, symbolizesa typeof frontierhero to the
recentcollegedropout,an echo ofhis earlierinterestin HopalongCassidy
(Castille 232). However,JosephCorso has convincinglyarticulatedthe
close resemblanceofthe fictionalDan Cody to the industrialistEdward
RobertGilman.As Cody does in the novelwithGatsby,Gilman tookon
the youngRobertKerrand providedhim withwhat Fitzgeraldcalls in
the novel a "singularlyappropriateeducation" (107).
Castille, Corso, and Matthew J. Bruccoli ("The Great Gatsby")
have done importantwork in determiningthe historicalsources for
Cody and other charactersin the novel, and theirwork has enabled
other criticsnow to focus attentionon the largersocioeconomic and
historicaldynamicsimplicitin the choices Fitzgeraldmade. Fitzgeralds
constructionof Cody emphasizes the self-makingtraditionso central
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
55
to the novel, harkeningback- as Castille, Corso, and Bruccoli have
- to the self-sufficient
while also hintingat
frontiersmen
demonstrated
the new typeof successful man in industrialAmerica. Contextualizing
how that traditionoperated in the 1920s, as opposed to duringearlier
generations,helps us interrogatehow the novel captures the conflation of business and crime.The "education"thatGatsbyreceives from
Cody- "thepioneer debauchee who duringone phase ofAmericanlife
broughtback to the easternseaboard the savage violence of the frontier
brotheland saloon"- clearlyemphasizes the potentialof theAmerican
individualto realize his dreams if he is willingto do whateverit takes,
including"savageviolence,"to attainthem(106). FromCody's example,
Gatsbylearnsto value the ends overthe means, furtherdistancinghimself fromhis boyhood adherence to Franklinstenets of improvement
that linked virtueand monetarygain. Thus, it should not come as a
surprisethatthe penniless Gatsby,havingreturnedStateside afterserving his countryin the war,formsa partnershipwiththe gangsterMeyer
Wolfshiem:This decision is a logical extensionof what he has learned
fromCody and what he has learned about how to succeed in America.
Moreover,we should recognize that Gatsby embraces Wolfshiemas a
means to an end, a way to move closer to the centerof the culturefrom
the margins.Only fromtherecan he win back Daisy.
Followinga postwarrecessionat the startof the 1920s, theAmerican economy climbed to newfound heights,with the gross-national
product risingnearly40 percent.This outstandinggrowthwas stimulated in greatpart by the demand forconsumer products,particularly
the automobile- at the beginning of the decade 9 million vehicles
were on the road, while by 1930 therewere 27 million.This demand
forconsumer products offerednew opportunitiesto those who were
able to take advantageof the emergingmarketsforgoods and services.
And those marketsincluded new ones createdbythe VolsteadAct. The
Prohibitionyears saw an upsurge in crime directlyresultingfromthe
need to supply a demand foralcohol and other related services that
continuedregardlessof legality.In The GreatGatsby
; the "services"that
but probably
remain
murky,
Gatsbyand Wolfshiemprovidetheirclients
include bootlegging,gambling,loansharking,and sellingstolen bonds.
- men
Like the real-lifegangsterswhose deeds these charactersmirror
such as Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Legs Diamond they meet
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56
StephenBrauer
the demand forleisure activitiesthatinclude drinkingalcohol and the
otherillegal outlets such as gamblingand prostitutionthatoftenwent
hand in hand withthe marketforalcohol. Gatsbys wealthdemonstrates
thattheyare highlysuccessfulin theirbusiness.As Tom Buchanan tells
Nick Carraway,ratherpetulantly,but witha touch of legitimacy,
"A lot
of these newlyrich people are just big bootleggers,you know" (114).
Moreover,the life of the gangsterdoes grantGatsby entrée- if not a
- into the worldof status thathe
secure foothold
desperatelydesires.
The gangstersof the 1920s, as representedin the novel by Wolfshiemand Gatsby,are a new typeofentrepreneur,
willingto use "savage
violence" to win in the marketplace.Wolfshiemshows offhis cufflinks
made of human molars and tells storiesof the shootingdeaths of his
friends.At the same time,he poses as a businessmanoffering
to set up "a
business gonnegtion"(78). Using the languageofthe self-making
narrative,Wolfshiemsaysofhis protégé,"I raisedhimup out ofnothing,right
out of the gutter.I saw rightaway he was a fineappearinggentlemanly
youngman and when he told me he was an OggsfordI knew I could
use him good" (179). He even goes so faras to claim, when Nick asks
him if he startedGatsby in business, "Starthim! I made him" (179).
Wolfshiem,as manycriticshave noted, is at least partlymodeled after
Arnold Rothstein.Rothsteinwas a well-knowncriminalfigurein the
dealerofnarcotics,and more.2
1920s, a gambler,bootlegger,
pawnbroker,
He was a mainstayin the explodingworldof crime thatovertookNew
Yorkand all ofurbanAmericain theyearsfollowingthe implementation
of the VolsteadAct in 1919. Along with Capone, Luciano, and others,
Rothsteinoccupied a dangerousworld. In New Yorkalone, more than
1,000 gangsterswere killedduringthe 1920s. In winningthe fightover
the new marketscreated by Prohibition,Capone, Luciano, Rothstein,
and select otherscame to emblematizethe individualsuccess storyduring the RoaringTwenties and were prominentlyfeaturedon the front
pages of the tabloid newspapers.
Fitzgeraldsituateshis narrativein thisculture,referring
specifically
to the Herman Rosenthalmurderin 19 12 by placing Wolfshiemat the
scene withRosenthalbeforehe was killed,even thoughRosenthalhad
in factbeen sittingalone (Gross). Fitzgeraldalso has Gatsbyexplicitly
statethatWolfshiemfixedthe 1919 WorldSeries, a crimewidelyattributed toArnoldRothstein.Thomas H. Pauly,however,has suggestedthat
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
57
Rothsteinservesnot so much as a model forWolfshiembut forGatsby
himself.Paulyemphasizes Rothsteinsconservativeappearance, his ties
to upper-class gamblers,and his large Long Island estate, along with
Fitzgeraldsnotes thathe had met Rothstein,to suggestthatRothstein
morecloselyresembledGatsbythanWolfshiem.Indeed, the allusion to
stolenbonds near the end ofthe novelrecallsthe famousFuller-McGee
trial,which made public Rothsteins connections to stolen securities
(Piper 171-84). CertainlyFitzgeraldwas well aware of the place of
gangstersinAmericancultureas he composed thenovel.Bruccoli("How
Are You" and Some Sort of Epic Grandeur 183-84) has suggestedthe
influenceof Max Gerlach, a minorbootleggerand Fitzgeraldsneighbor
in the summerof 1923, on Fitzgeraldscreationof Gatsby; and Horst
Kruse has recentlyofferedan in-depthstudyof thisconnectionthathas
extendedand reinforcedBruccolis supposition.Pauly(226-29) contrasts
RothsteinwithGerlach and George Remus, a successfulownerofdrugstoresthatsold alcohol and who threwlavish Gatsby-likepartiesat his
Long Island mansion in the early1920s, as possible models forGatsby,
suggestingthat Rothsteins machinationsmore closely resembled the
schemes thatGatsbywas involvedin,includingthe sale ofstolenbonds.
While Pauly suggeststhat Gatsby was more than just a frontman for
Wolfshiem,he also points out strikingresemblances between Gatsby
and Dapper Dan Collins, Rothsteinsown frontman, a connectionalso
recognizedby Philip Castille (Pauly 235; Castille 231).
Whichever actual gangster,or combination of gangsters,critics
wantto locate as the source materialforGatsby,the connectionbetween
Fitzgeraldsconstructionofhimand actual gangstersin the 1920s seems
sure. But criticscan do moreto engage withthe socioculturaldynamics
implicitin the historicalsources forthe novel. Like the protagonistsin
most classic rags-to-richesstories,these gangstersof the 1920s came
fromhumble origins and rose to make a fortune.They recognized
and exploited emergingmarketsand operated as entrepreneurswho
answered the demands of theirtime. Crime was not a new element in
urbanAmericanin the 1920s; as HerbertAsburysuggestedin his 1928
, crime
compilationof urban gang narratives,The Gangs of New York
had served as a way of life since the mid-1800s forindividualson the
socioeconomicmargins.Some turnedto crimein orderto provideforthe
basic necessitiesoffood,sustenance,or shelter.Othersapproacheditas
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58
StephenBrauer
a career,stealingfromlocal merchants,conningdupes of theirmoney,
pickpocketingvisitorsto the city,controllingdistrictsin the city,and
offering
"protectionservices"to inhabitantsof a neighborhoodor town.
However,bythe 1920s, crimeand gangstershad takenon a romanticized
allure,an allure closelylinkedto the cultures language of success.3
In 1925, Fitzgeraldwas at the forefront
ofthistypeofcharacterization. The Great Gatsbyoffersan illuminatingexample of the narrative
of success tied indeliblyto the narrativeof crime.4At the heartof this
connectionis an emphasis on crimeas a business and gangstersas businessmen,which echoed the representationsof gangstersin media portrayalsofthe 1920s and 1930s. Moreover,Fitzgerald'srepresentationof
JayGatsbyhimselffitssquarelywithintheparametersofthe commodity
fetishizationthatculturalcriticssuch as David Ruthnote characterized
much of the portrayalsof gangstersin thistimeperiod.5Fitzgeraldcapturesthisbest in his depictionof Gatsbys car as an exaggeratedphallic
symbol:"It was a richcream color,brightwithnickel,swollen here and
therein itsmonstrouslengthwithtriumphant
hatboxesand supper-boxes
and tool-boxes,and terracedwith a labyrinthof windshieldsthat mirroreda dozen suns" (68). Gatsbys possessions- his house, the books in
his library,
the "soft,richheap" of his shirts,arrangedin "many-colored
disarray"(97), thatDaisy cries over- symbolizehis wealth and authorityand signifyhis success as a businessman.6That success, of course,
derivesdirectlyfromwhat he has made throughhis "service"industry
withMeyerWolfshiem.Surelysuch a notionof broad-basedindividual
success resultingfromshadybusiness dealings did not originatein the
1920s. The evolutionof the storyof self-making
intothe realmof crime
had roots decades before the 1920s, in the late nineteenthand early
twentiethcentury,when the robberbarons of thattime helped to shift
Franklinianself-making
fromitsclose connectiontovirtueto an ideology
Indeed, the
fullyembracingthe exploitationof economic opportunity.
robberbarons served as transitionalfiguresin the developmentof the
criminalarchetypein the 1920s. Fitzgerald'slinkingof JayGatsbyand
JamesJ. Hill seems revealing,then, because in tappinginto a history
of self-making,
Fitzgeraldestablishes a historyof what gangstersin the
1920s were doing.
; JosephG.
Justa fewyearsbeforeFitzgeraldwroteThe GreatGatsby
Hill
the
of
that
its
subject officially
biography
recognized
Pylepublished
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
59
as definitiveand authorized.7The Life ofJamesJ. Hill, in two volumes,
stands as a fascinatingdocumentof hagiography,
presentingHills story
as an Algeresque narrativeof socioeconomic advancementfrompoverty
to wealth and glory.8
Like Gatsby,Hill grewup the son of farmers.Pyle
begins by illustratinghow Hills parents struggledto make theirsmall
farmpay offand to raise a familyon theirmodestincome. He repeatedly
stresses that Hills achievementscame as a resultof his willingnessto
workhard, arguingthat Hill reached greatnessthroughsheer will and
determination:"These two conditioningcircumstances,moneyand opare external,and neitheris particularlyimportant.The real
portunity,
sources of success lie within:knowledge,foresight,courage, honesty,
labour"(2: 378-79). Moreover,at numerousmoments,Pyle followsthe
traditionalplot of the Franklinianself-makingnarrative.He describes
Hills "kindnessof heart,"his charity,and his generosity;he claims that
Hill distinguishedhimselfwith his perspicacity,his "invaluable prescience"; and he suggests that Hill was destined forsuccess because
of his "familiarity
with conditionsand the grasp of details displayedin
relationto almosteverykindof business" ( 1: 37, 77, 180). It is thistone
thatleads Michael Malone to describe Pyle'sapproach as "obsequious"
(283).
viewedHill as such a positive
Certainlynotall ofhis contemporaries
model of the businessman. HistorianFrederickLewis Allen,in Lordsof
Creation, his 1935 account of the economic expansion between 1890
and 1930, notes the notoriousbattle over controlof NorthernPacific
stock in the springof 1901. Along withJ. PierpontMorgan, Hill tried
to fightoffthe attemptof E. H. Harrimanto gain a footholdin the corporate powerbase that controlledso manyof the Westernrailroads.In
theirweeklongbattleoverthe common stock,these men caused a Wall
Street panic as theycornered the marketfor NorthernPacific stock.
Allen writesof the aftermathof the stock fight,
The one sure victorin the battle- a battle which fromany
broad social pointofview,consideringthe railroadsas public
carriersratherthan as pawns in a game of grab, appeared
almostcompletelysenseless- was theprincipleofconsolidationand concentrationofcapital. The loserswere the specu-
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StephenBrauer
60
latorsand investors,largeand small,who had been trapped
between the contendingarmies. (65)
Aliens contemporaryMatthewJosephsonalso writesof Hills desire to
win at all costs in his 1934 account The RobberBarons. The railroad
9
tycoon,he asserts,"had no small scruples"(236). "Withhis low costs,
his economical planning,"Josephsonsays of Hill, "he was equipped to
And
compete as mercilesslyas Rockefellerin his large-scaleoil-refining.
10
like Rockefeller,Hill meant to rule or ruin" (237).
By the end of World War I, the gilded age of the robberbarons
was essentiallyover.Hill, Harriman,Morgan,Carnegie, and JayGould
wereall dead. Regardlessofones feelingsabout thissmallgroupofmen,
Allen writes,one mustrecognize"thepervasivesocial influence- in the
broadestsense- of the financialand industrialleaders; fortheylargely
constitutedour American upper class, and theirstandards and ideas
tended to permeate the whole population"(xi). The public perception
of the robberbarons in the firstthirdof the twentiethcenturywas, not
surprisingly,
complex and even contradictory.
Josephsoncontends:
They were aggressivemen, as were the firstfeudal barons;
sometimestheywere lawless; in importantcrises,nearlyall of
themtendedto act withoutthoseestablishedmoralprinciples
whichfixedmoreorless theconductofthecommonpeople of
the community.
At the same time,it has been noted,manyof
themshowedvolcanicenergyand qualitiesofcouragewhich,
under anothereconomic clime, mighthave fittedthem for
immenselyuseful social constructions,and renderedthem
(vii)
gloriousratherthan hatefulto theirpeople.
One must recognize the "paradox,"as Josephson puts it, in the vast
changes that these men broughtabout in the economyand in turning
the nation into a "unifiedindustrialsociety,"the controlof which was,
(vii-viii). Such thinking
disturbingly,
"lodgedin thehands ofa hierarchy"
to
the
of
what
it
means
to
be
a greatman- "a man,"
points
complexity
as Mr. Gatz says to Nick Carrawayin Fitzgeraldsnovel,"likeJamesJ.
Hill."
Pyle,in his biography,
acknowledgedthewaysthatHill was at times
in
the
but
he directlysoughtto subvertany notionsof
media;
portrayed
wrongdoing:
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
61
Some fewpeople in themuck-raking
periodincluded Mr. Hill
in theirgeneral denunciationof the rich man as a criminal
ipsofacto. But the public as a whole showed juster discrimination. He alone, among the verywealthyindividualsof his
day,was singled out fora respect revealed by unmistakable
indications. (1: 290)
His attemptto defuseanysense ofHill as anythingotherthanexemplary
is tellinghere,forPyle notes thatmanyof Hills wealthycontemporaries
were seen as "criminals."Again, it is this migrationof the self-making
narrativeinto the realm of the criminalthat is evident. Regardless of
whetherHill engaged in nefariousbusiness practices or actual criminal activity,this passage fromPyles biographyreveals at the least the
perceptionthata linkexistedat the time between businessmen of the
highestorderand criminals.Pyles language in assertingthat the basis
of Hills fortune,"judged by any accepted standard,is sound and above
of an anxietythatthe basis of
reproach"( 1: 292), speaks most strikingly
his fortunemightnot be interpretedas above reproach.
There are also momentswhen Pyles rhetoricbetrayshim and he
fails in his attemptsto portrayHill onlyin the most positivelight.He
introduces his subject by asserting,"He was not notablyprecocious
but, fromhis earliestdays,exhibitedone tendencythatpersistedin the
man to the end of his life and was one source of his wonderfulfund
of information.He was desperatelyfond of reading"(1: 9). This first
presentationof the book s protagonistrhetoricallystresses a desire for
and knowledgewhich Pyle soon embellishes. After
self-improvement
his fathers death, Hill was forced to work to provide for his family,
and, Pyle suggests,"Formaleducation was transformedinto a process
of severe self-instruction,
neverto be interruptedeven by the demands
of such care and responsibilityas rarelycentre in a single individual"
(1: 19-20). This emphasis on education, so foundationalto Franklins
notionof self-making,
is the centralelement of Pyles representationof
Hill. In a criticalpassage, he writes:
He read and studiedincreasingly,
unceasingly.It was already
his habit,wheneveranynew subject came withinhis horizon,
to search out the highestauthorityhe could find,to ask fora
listof the best books on the topic thatcould be had, to send
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62
StephenBrauer
forthemand devourthemin the hours thatcould be spared
fromwork.He covered theirmarginswithnotes of his own.
Once mastered,the contentswere his forall time.. . . He was
omnivorousin his search forinformation;he tore the heart
out of his subject and made it so thoroughlyhis own thatit
was at his serviceever thereafter. (1: 36-37)
In contendingthatHill "torethe heartout ofhis subject,"Pyledescribes
a type of rapacious violence tied to his readingpractices, one that is
twice in this passage connected to "owning"his subject and puttingit
into"hisservice."He thereforelocates thefoundationalelementofHills
riseto greatnessin thisfondnessforreadingthatis rhetorically
imagined
as strikingly
violentand predatory.
This seems an especiallyinteresting
way of capturingthe success of one of the robberbarons on his way to
"mastering]a business" (1: 48).
Pyle energeticallystrivesto place Hills storyalong the continuum
of the classic self-makingnarrative,but the implicationsof megalomania and violence in Hills approach to business are veryapparentin his
biography.
AlthoughPyle soughtto consider Hill withina pantheon of
greatAmericanmen who rose up frompovertyto wealth,his language
actuallydemonstratesthatviolence has corruptedthe self-makingnarrative,as in the descriptionof Hills readingpractices.The end resultof
wealthappears morevaluable thanthe means throughwhich one seeks
to achieve success. In arguingthis I do not mean to sound naïve as to
the realityof what success looked like beforethe 1920s, or even before
the timeoftherobberbarons;I do notmean to suggestthattherewas no
violence or crimeor unethicalbusiness practicesinvolvedin the rise of
businessmenin the timebeforeHill. I am trying
to argue,however,that
the rhetoricforthe self-makingnarrativetooka sharp turnat thispoint
in Americanhistory,
one thathelps us come to a greaterunderstanding
both of the largerculture and of Fitzgerald'snovel. Why would Pyle
offera portraitof Hill as heroicwhile basing his characterizationof his
subject on a linguisticmetaphorof violence?
We mightask if this portrayalis so different
fromthatofferedby
Nick Carrawayof his subject,JayGatsby.Carrawayrepeatedlyidealizes
Gatsby,even as he apparentlyseeks to distance himselffromhim:
"They'rea rottencrowd,"I shouted, across the lawn.
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
63
"You'reworththe whole damn bunch put together."
IVe always been glad I said that. It was the onlycomplimentI ever gave him,because I disapprovedof him from
( 162)
beginningto end.
This last statementis clearlymisleading- an attempton Carrawayspart
as the narratorto maintainan ethical distance fromGatsbys means of
success. He has, afterall, become one ofGatsbys closest friendsand has
assisted himin his attemptto reconcilewithDaisy. Nicks dual response
of attractionand rejectionis evocative of the complexityof judging a
man likeGatsbywho embraces deeplyheldAmericanvalues ofsuccess,
but who also threatensthe foundationof the moral frameworkof the
society.Fitzgeraldwas strikingly
prescientin The Great Gatsbyin his
cultural
figure;the novel is one of the first
recognitionof a new typeof
representationsof an emergingtypeof hero in the 1920s the gangster
as businessman.Fitzgeraldrecognizeda shiftin the culturenotso much
in termsof how businessmen were sometimesportrayedas criminals,
forcertainlythatwas not somethingnew.11Instead, Fitzgeraldsgenius
in this regardwas in understandingthat gangsterswere now linked
withbusiness and should be understoodin that context.His portrayal
of Gatsbygets at the complicated nuances of a man who is celebrated
forhis success but criticizedforthe means to thatsuccess. Carraways
assertionthathe "disapproves"of Gatsbyembodies this dual response:
despite his claim ofrejectingGatsby,Carrawayis certainlydrawnto him
and his charisma. (He is not the only one; Fitzgeraldnicely contrasts
the impressivelylong listof guests at Gatsbys partieswiththe devastating lack of attendees at Gatsbys funeral.)And perhaps we should not
blame Carrawayforbeing so takenwithGatsby- or blame Pyle,either,
forhis idealizationof Hill. These responses are the complicated social
processes throughwhich men like Gatsby and Hill were valorizedfor
what theyrepresentedin theirself-making.
We can see additionalevidence of the response to the gangsteras
businessmanin the narrativeofanotherfigurefromthe same timeperiod
who, like Gatsby,was celebrated as an example of social mobilityand
the rise fromthe social marginsto economic heights.Fred D. Pasleys
Al Capone: Biographyofa Self-MadeMan (1930) offersanothersense
of the characterizationof the gangsteras a businessman: "Coming to
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64
StephenBrauer
Chicago in 1920 an impecunious hoodlum,in 1929 he was estimated
byattachésoftheinternalrevenueserviceto be worth$20,000,000" (9).
Pasleylaysout his visionof Capones rise in the criminalunderworldof
Chicago in much the same termsas the classic self-makingnarrative:
- the
Poorlittlerichboy- the HoratioAlgerlad ofprohibition
gaminfromthe sidewalksof New York,who made good in a
Big Shot wayin Chicago- GeneralAl the Scarface,who won
the war to make the worldsafe forpublic demand. (355)
Regardless of the ironythat Pasley relies upon in this summaryof
is in itselfa sufCapones career,the use of the languageof self-making
ficientindicationthat he recognizesa strongconnection between the
representationof the gangsterand the businessman. Much of what he
writesin factfollowsthe model thatAlgerhad popularizedin the nineteenthcentury.Capone, like manyAlgerheroes, was forcedearlyinto
labor and the responsibilitiesof adulthood. Pasley tells how he
had quit school in the fourthgradeto help his parentsin the
struggleforexistencein the slums . . . [and] had learned to
prowlthe streetsand alleyswiththe sharpwitsof those who
begin as mischievousgamins,pillagingvegetable carts,and
end as wharfrats, lootingtrucksand warehouses. He had
soon commandedrespectbyreasonofhis fighting
abilityand
fastthinking. (17)
His abilitynotjust to survivebut to distinguishhimself,such a passage
implies, came not only fromhis physical exploits,but fromhis intelligence.
The narrativearc of Capones rags-to-richesstory,moreover,is
based, Pasley suggests,upon his recognitionof the value of modern
business practices:
The unknownCapone of 1920, makinga lowlydebut
intothe Chicago underworldat the behest ofJohnnyTorrio,
was ostensiblyjust one of the bourgeoisie;loud ofdress,free
ofprofanity;
no paunch then;stout-muscled,hard-knuckled;
a vulgarperson; a tough baby fromFive Points, New York
City;bouncerand boss ofthe FourDeuces; Torriosall-round
handyman.
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Gangsteras Businessman
JayGatsbyand theProhibition
65
Unheralded his coming,and considerable timewas to
elapse beforetheunsuspectingpublic and authoritieswere to
be made aware of his presence and its epochal significance.
For Capone was to revolutionizecrime and corruptionby
puttingboth on an efficiencybasis, and to instillinto a reorganizedganglandfirmbusiness methodsof procedure.He
had served with the A.E.F. overseas in the World War and
the instillingwas to be withmachine guns.
(10-11)
The shiftin this passage in Pasleys portrayalof Capone - fromvulgar
underling,who, in the beginningof the 1920s, reliedon his strength,to
astute leader,who,just fiveor sixyearslater,wiselyreshaped the workingsofhis organizationformaximumefficiency demonstratestheway
the languageofbusiness was so closelyalignedwithcrimein the 1920s.
The finalsentence,in which Pasleyalludes to Capones use of"machine
guns" as the means of takingcontrolof the bootlegging,gambling,and
prostitutionmarkets,reinforcesthe image of "savageviolence"as a justifiablemethodof operationin business.
Capones success in dominatingtheillicitliquormarketleads Pasley
morethanonce to describe Capone as "theJohnD. Rockefellerof some
12
(9, 144). Like Rocktwentythousand anti-Volsteadfilling-stations"
efeller,who owned both refineriesand gas stations,Capone understood
the value of controllingboth the manufactureand sale of the product.
He controlled"the sources of supplyfromCanada and the Florida east
coast and the operationsof local wildcat breweriesand distilleries"(9).
Summingup Capone s organization,Pasleyasserts,withseemingadmiration,"Here was a supertrustoperatingwith the efficiencyof a great
corporation.It had a completeauditingsystem,maintainedbya clerical
staffoftwenty-five
persons.There were loose-leafledgers,card indexes,
memorandumaccounts, and day-books.No itemwas overlooked"(70).
Pasleys analysis of the organizationportraysCapone as a new typeof
criminalwho recognized the power of strongcorporatepractices as a
means of maximizingprofitand who had mastered modern corporate
practices.
In fact, in his descriptionof Capones rise and in his repeated
linkingof Capone with the business tycoon Rockefeller,Pasley demonstratesthe way in which gangstersof the 1920s could quite easily
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66
StephenBrauer
serveas representations
ofself-madeheroes. In so doing,he rhetorically
echoes Fitzgerald'spresentationof Gatsby as a complex protagonist,a
man who seems onlyto wantto reunitewiththewoman he continuesto
love,butwho uses crimeand violence in orderto getthe chance to meet
her again. Even Nick Carrawayadmitsof Gatsby,when Tom Buchanan
alludes to Gatsbys latest business venture,"He looked- and this is
said in all contemptforthe babbled slanderof his garden- as ifhe had
'killed a man.' For a momentthe set of his face could be described in
nonetheless
just thatfantasticway' (142). And yetCarraway,as narrator,
as
the
doomed
hero
of
the
who
"had come
narrative,
imaginesGatsby
a long way to thisblue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close
thathe could hardlyfailto graspit" (189).
That same rhetoricalsympathyseems elemental to Pasleys presentationof Capone, who he seems to valorizeeven while assertinghis
viciousness.13PasleywritesofChicago in 1928, at theheightofCapones
reignoverthe city,that
therewere 367 murders,129 of which were eitherunsolved
ortheprincipalsnotapprehended.Of thosearrested,37 were
acquitted,39 receivedjail sentences, 16 were sent to insane
asylums,16 committedsuicide,and 11 (gangstercases) were
killed.There were no executions.In otherwords,on the 1928
record,a murdererhad a 300-to-0chance thathe would not
be sentenced to death in Chicago.
(151)
But even while bemoaningthe lawlessness thataccompanied Capones
controlof the city,Pasley portrayshim as an astute businessman who
gained dominanceof the available marketsforthe serviceshe provided.
This contradictionis at the heart of the portrayalof gangstersin the
1920s and 1930s and illustratesthe complicated social processes that
went into both rejectingthe violence with which these figureswere
associated and yet also celebratingwhat theyrepresentedin termsof
self-makingand the social mobilityof the individual.
This commingling
oftherhetoricofself-making
and businessin the
crimenarrativewas, I have suggested,an inevitablenextstep afterthe
oftherobberbaronsofthepreviousgeneration,who were
representation
likewiseportrayed
as bothheroicand criminalin historiesand biographies
of this time period. Fitzgerald'sachievementin his characterizationof
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
67
Gatsby comes in his abilityto renderGatsby as both sympatheticand
also despicable. This dual constructionis at the heartofthe figureofthe
gangsteras businessman and is the keycharacteristicthatotherwriters
of Fitzgeraldstime focused on. In pulp novels of the later 1920s and
early 1930s, we can findnumerouscharacterswho followthe tropeof
the gangsteras businessman. Donald Henderson Clarkes Louis Beretti
(1929), W. R. BurnettsLittleCaesar (1929), and BenjaminAppels Brain
Guy (1934) are threecrimenarrativesthatcloselyfollowthe self-making
model. The WarnerBrothers'gangsterfilmsof the same yearsoftenalso
pursued the same narrativearc. Many yearslater,ofcourse, Mario Puzo
would update the figurein The Godfatherand make famousthe phrase,
"Its nothingpersonal. Its just business." Such a philosophyis now commonplace in gangsterfiguresin literatureand film,but in themid-1920s,
themixingofcriminaland businessrhetoricswas somethingdramatically
different.
Fitzgeraldperceiveda culturalshifttakingplace and captured
it in his novel,therebyopeningup the possibilityforotherwriterssafely
- fictionalones or actual ones like Al Capone - as
to rendergangsters
contemporaryemblems of the ideologyof socioeconomic mobilitythat
Benjamin Franklinhad once tied to virtueand self-improvement.
Notes
1. Bermanis one of the fewcriticswho mentionHill in theiranalysesof
the novel. While Bermanis interestedin conceptionsof success in the
novel,he does not tryfullyto explorethe implicationsof the connection
betweenGatsbyand Hill.
2. For the fullestportraitof Rothstein,see Katcher.
3. Bermangoes so faras to suggestthatWolfshiem,just as much as the
drasticallymore naïve and shelteredHenryGatz, was a believer"in the
of success" because he "takesit on faiththatsuccess is a matter
morality
of characterand belief' (168). The linkbetween MeyerWolfshiemand
Ben Franklinis wonderfully
evocative.
4. A numberofrecentcriticshave notedconnectionsbetweenthe rhetoand the representations
of criminalsin the 1920s and
ric of self-making
1930s. JonathanMunbyarguesin Public Enemies,Public Heroesthatthe
cinematicgangstersofsuch filmsas LittleCaesar; Public Enemyand Scarface- charactersbased at leastinpartonAl Capone- "cameto expressthe
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68
StephenBrauer
desiresof the culturallyand economicallyghettoizedin an ethnicstreet
vernacular. . . [that]help[ed] fosterthe nations collectiveidentification
withthe desiresof new'Americansfora fairershareoftheAmericanpie"
(4). The gangsterfigurein thesefilmssoughta successfulfuture,likeany
AmericanpursuinghisversionoftheAmericanDream
otherworking-class
ofmovingfromthemarginsofsocietyto a moresecureeconomicposition.
In InventingthePublic Enemy, his studyof the urbangangsterfigurein
of
the 1920s and early1930s, David Ruthnotes thatin media portrayals
the "publicenemy,energeticand confident,was successful
the gangster,
in a competitive,highlyorganizedbusiness.A model of stylishconsumption,he worefineclothes,rode in a gleamingautomobile,and reveledin
of the
(2). What is new in thistypeofrepresentation
expensivenightlife"
criminal,and whatbothMunbyand Ruthrecognize,is thewaythatcrime
was operatingas a movefromthe marginstowardthe mainstream.
5. See especiallyRuths chapter(63-86) on fashionand the functionof
clothingin the crimenarrative.
and critiqueofconsumerculturein the
6. Formoreon therepresentation
in Marxistpoliticsand class issues,
interest
as
well
as
novel,
Fitzgerald's
see Posnockand Donaldson.
itlacks
7. While Pyleswas recognizedbyHill as the"authorized"
biography,
Much
better
are
two
in
its
of
its
sense
of
subject.
portrayal
any
objectivity
laterbiographies,byAlbroMartinand by Michael Malone.
8. Drawinga straightconnectionbetweenAlgerand the robberbaronsin
forgain,even ifthatgain derived
termsof the recognitionof opportunity
fromillicitmeans, Bermanwritesthatthe "Algerhero necessarilyhas a
lot of Hill and Vanderbiltin him"(170-71).
measuredin his approachto therobberbarons,
9. WhileAllenis admirably
more
of
a
muckraker.
is
However,hisworkwas widelyrespected
Josephson
foritsaccuracyand attentionto detailand wentthroughnumerousprintings. For a trulyvociferousattackon the robberbarons fromthis same
era, see McConaughy.
10. Malone has recentlyclaimed thatHill "was not a man to disappoint,
of his subject,suggests
angeror cross"and, in contrastto Pyles portrayal
thatHill was guiltyof such malfeasanceas corporatesabotage,collusion,
and even bribery(81, 28, 63, 127).
ofbusi11. Writerswho,priorto Fitzgerald,had exploredthe criminality
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JayGatsbyand theProhibition
Gangsteras Businessman
69
nessmeninclude HermanMelvillein The Confidence-Man(1857), Frank
Norrisin The Octopus(1901) and The Pit (1902), TheodoreDreiserin The
Financier(1912) and The Titan (1914), and AbrahamCahan in The Rise
; publishedin the same
of David Levinsky(1917). In ManhattanTransfer
as
Dos
Passos
does offera portraitof
The
Great
John
year(1925)
Gatsby,
a gangsteras businessmanin the characterof Congo Jake.Like Gatsby,
Congo is an immenselylikableand charismaticfigureto the othercharactersin the novel.
12. PeterBaida, in PoorRichardsLegacy his recentsurveyof American
business values fromFranklinto Donald Trump,shows thatRockefeller
- as
defended his business practices- rebates,bribes, and price fixing
evolvingfrom"thenaturallaws oftrade,"thoughBaida notesthatmanyof
thesepracticeshad been made illegalbythe InterstateCommerceAct of
Baida concludes,"itwould
1887. "Thoughitscriticsmayhaveexaggerated,"
to arguethatStandardOil did nothingto deserveitsreputation
be difficult
ofruthlessness"(117). Formoreon readingsof Rockefellerand Standard
texts- Nevins and
Oil froman earlierperspective,see twoverydifferent
whileTarbell
to
is
Tarbell.Nevins perhapsoverlysympathetic Rockefeller,
perspectivethatwas so bent on damningthe
representsthe muckraking
robberbarons.
13. I do not want to press the comparisonbetween Gatsbyand Capone
too far:While Capone was a viciousthugwho used violenceto intimidate
and destroycompetitors,
Gatsbyis implicatedin violenceonlybyrumor.I
to imply
but I am nottrying
have suggestedthathe is, afterall, a gangster,
an equivalencybetween these characters.Instead,I am seekingto point
- and of
ofbothfigures
to the rhetoricalsimilaritiesin the representation
derivesfromthe culturalmoHill- and to suggestthatsuch a similarity
mentin the 1920s and 1930s.
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: An InformalHistoryofthe UnAsbury,Herbert.The GangsofNew York
derworld.New York:Knopf,1928.
Baida, Peter.PoorRichard'sLegacy:AmericanBusinessValuesfromBenjaminFranklinto Donald Trump.New York:Morrow,1990.
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